Archway Validator — Quick Setup Guide

Archway is a Tendermint-based smart contract platform that rewards developers for the value they provide to the network. Developers are rewarded proportional to the usage of the dApps they build and launch.

Currently, Archway is carrying out its testnet, whereby validators are being set up and are run throughout the testing phase of the network before the project moves to mainnet.

In this guide, we will go through the step-by-step process of setting up and running a post-genesis validator.

Let’s begin!

System Requirements

Recommended infrastructure for running a node on the Torii testnet is the following:

- 4 GB RAM, x64 2.0 GHz 2v CPU
- 512 GB SSD
- Stable internet connection

Linux and macOS are supported

M1 Macs are not supported by CosmWasm currently. Read https://github.com/CosmWasm/wasmvm#overview for more information.

You can choose to modify the parameters described here: https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/blob/master/docs/nodes/running-in-production.md#configuration-parameters

System requirement reference for Tendermint Consensus: https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/blob/master/docs/nodes/running-in-production.md#hardware

Install Dependencies

1. Check for updates, upgrade and install dependencies.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install build-essential -y
sudo apt-get install jq -y

Install Go

# First remove any existing old Go installation
sudo rm -r /usr/local/go
sudo rm -r ~/go
# Install correct Go version
sudo wget https://golang.org/dl/go1.18.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvf go1.18.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo rm go1.18.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv go /usr/local

Create a User

2. Create and switch to a user ‘validator’ for running the node:

#(Note: --disabled-login is an alternative and more secure way of creating a user which can be accessed only through root.)
sudo adduser validator --disabled-login
su validator

3. Create the GO working path folder for Archway and set the appropriate GO environmental variables to the user’s profile:

mkdir ~/go
echo 'GOROOT=/usr/local/go' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'GOPATH=~/go' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin' >> ~/.bashrc
#We use source to make the changes of the file applicable
source .bashrc
#Check that GOROOT and GOPATH are correctly set
echo $GOROOT
echo $GOPATH

Install Archway binary

4. Retrieve the source code

git clone https://github.com/archway-network/archway
cd archway
git checkout main

5. Install

make install

Configure the environment

6. Initialize data to generate the config files

archwayd init <your-moniker> --chain-id torii-1

7. Download genesis from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/archway-network/testnets/main/torii-1/genesis.json and put it in the home directory:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/archway-network/testnets/main/torii-1/genesis.json
mv genesis.json /home/validator/.archway/config

Set Network Parameters

8. Download persistent_peers.txt from archway-network/testnets repository:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/archway-network/testnets/main/torii-1/persistent_peers.txt

Add the returned peer for the above command to your config.toml, which is located in /home/validator/.archway/config

It would be ideal to add other validator peers. These are normally shared on the discord.

# Comma separated list of nodes to keep persistent connections to
persistent_peers = "<add peers here>"

Running as a service

We will now run our executable as a service in order for it to be easily managed. In your system directory as a root user at /etc/systemd/system create a new service file named validator.service

nano validator.service

Use the below service file and change any specific parameters respective to your setup.

[Unit]
Description=Archway Testnet Valdator
After=network-online.target
[Service]
User=validator
ExecStart=/home/validator/go/bin/archwayd start
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=4096
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

The following are systemctl commands, used to manage your service:

Enable automatic restart of your daemon

systemctl enable validator.service

To reload your systemd files, run this after you have edited your service file

systemctl daemon-reload

Restart your service

systemctl restart validator.service

Start your service

systemctl start validator.service

Stop your service

systemctl stop validator.service

View logs

journalctl -u validator.service -f

Create keys

archwayd keys add <key-name>

Request utorii from faucet in Discord

You will need sufficient utorii in order to carry out the create validator transaction, which can be requested on the Archway discord server in the #faucet channel

Create Validator

In order to create your validator, make sure you are fully synced to the latest block height of the network.

You can check by using the following command:

curl -s localhost:26657/status | jq .result | jq .sync_info 

In the output of the above command make sure catching_up is false

“catching_up”: false

archwayd tx staking create-validator \
 --from <wallet name> \
 --amount 1000000utorii \
 --min-self-delegation 1000000 \
 --commission-rate 0.1 \
 --commission-max-rate 0.1 \
 --commission-max-change-rate 0.01 \
 --pubkey $(archwayd tendermint show-validator) \
 --chain-id=torii-1 \

That’s it now you can find your validator operator address using the following command, which you can advertise to receive delegations:

archwayd keys show <wallet name> --bech val -a

Check out the following explorer to have a visual representation of all sorts of information and activity going on the Archway testnet network.

Archway explorer by Nodes.Guru

Monitoring your node/nodes is key to maintaining uptime and mitigating any shortfalls, which may result in your validator being slashed. You can check out our open source monitoring and alerting solution for Cosmos nodes, PANIC by Simply Staking. It is compatible with any chain built using the Cosmos SDK, such as Archway.

GitHub - SimplyVC/panic: PANIC Monitoring and Alerting For Blockchains

Note that a new release of the new PANIC integration will be available by end of April 2022(this coming week).

Useful Commands

Create a wallet

archwayd keys add <wallet_name>

Recovering a wallet

archwayd keys add <wallet_name> --recover

List all the wallets and their addresses and public keys:

archwayd keys list

Checking wallet balance

archwayd q bank balances <wallet_address>

Show valoper address

archwayd keys show <wallet name> --bech val -a

Check binary version

archwayd version --long

Retrieve the node ID

archwayd tendermint show-node-id

Create a validator

archwayd tx staking create-validator \
 --from <wallet name> \
 --amount 1000000utorii \
 --min-self-delegation 1000000 \
 --commission-rate 0.1 \
 --commission-max-rate 0.1 \
 --commission-max-change-rate 0.01 \
 --pubkey $(archwayd tendermint show-validator) \

Check node status

curl localhost:26657/status

Check synchronization status

curl -s localhost:26657/status | jq .result.sync_info.catching_up

Check the maximum number of validators in the active set

archwayd q staking params | grep max_validators

Display a list of Bonded validators

archwayd q staking validators -o json --limit=1000 | jq '.validators[] | select(.status=="BOND_STATUS_BONDED")' | jq -r '.tokens + " - " + .description.moniker' | sort -gr | nl

Display a list of Unbonded validators

archwayd q staking validators -o json --limit=1000 | jq '.validators[] | select(.status=="BOND_STATUS_UNBONDED")' | jq -r '.tokens + " - " + .description.moniker' | sort -gr | nl

Concluding remarks

Archway relies on a set of validators to secure the network, therefore as a validator your role is to run a full-node and participate in consensus by signing and committing new blocks.

The purpose of the testnet, other than test the durability and functionality of the chain, is for anyone to experience and get acquainted with the process of running a node on the network. Therefore, it is encouraged to ask questions and experiment with different configurations, as it exists for this purpose.

Ultimately, running a validator on Archway is a great opportunity to interact with the chain before it goes live on mainnet and besides that, there are several other challenges available to participate in.

Learn more about Archway here: archway.io.

Stay tuned to Simply Staking for more Archway related guides and documentation:

• Website: https://simply-vc.com.mt
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimplyStaking
• Discord: https://discord.gg/Kpzc58Gu9a
• Telegram: https://t.me/SimplyVC